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SRSG LEGWAILA EXPRESSES OPTIMISM FOR ETHIOPIA-ERITREA PEACE PROCESS

Q: Are you worried that the Ethiopia-Eritrea peace process will take a back seat to the war in Iraq, and how damaging would that be if indeed, it were to be the case?

SRSG: Well, lucky enough, you know, the war in Iraq, and we are still at it in UNMEE together with the guarantors of the peace process which includes the United States of America. So, I don’t think the process here is taking a back stage. Those who are committed to peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea can’t sacrifice their commitment to the war in Iraq and therefore I am happy that the Ambassador of the United States here in Addis Ababa and the Ambassador of the United States in Eritrea have been busy trying to help me, help the parties to proceed with the peace process particularly with the demarcation of the border.

Q. Ambassador Legwaila , you may agree with us that the issue of demarcation has been preoccupying many minds. People are concerned about when it will start. To what extent are you concerned that demarcation may not start when it is scheduled to start and the people in both countries could begin to lose confidence in the process?

SRSG: Well, I am not too worried about when the demarcation process will start. As long as there is work going on the border— and as it is going on in the eastern sector to prepare for demarcation— I am relatively pleased that at least something is being done to prepare the border for demarcation. I know we may be having some road- blocks in that process and I hope these road- blocks will be temporary and therefore, I think, it will be wrong to be too fixated on particular dates for the start of demarcation. What is important is that in the final analysis the border must be demarcated, there must be a normalization of the frontier between the two countries and hopefully that will usher in peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea and by extension to the Horn of Africa.

Q. This reminds me of your very famous quote that the peace process "is doomed to succeed," what gives you continuing hope?

SRSG: Well, what gives me continued hope was every time the parties said to me they are still committed to the Algiers agreements. My hope is replenished in the sense that I am continually told by the parties who are directly concerned about the implementation of the Algiers Agreements that they are committed to those agreements. Despite the fact that there are disagreements in so far as the decision of the Boundary Commission is concerned, none of the parties has said that the decision is not final and binding and therefore what this says to me is that what is overriding in the consideration of the two countries is peace between them, is never to go back to war. In other words the spirit of Article One of the Peace Agreement is with them and it is saying to them ‘you have committed yourselves to cease hostilities forever and never to threaten or use force against each other.’ And therefore if they are still committed to that, I have no reason whatsoever to be pessimistic. I have no reason whatsoever to withdraw my famous expression "the process is doomed to succeed."

Q: Your Excellency, in the Security Council’s last report and in its Resolution 1466, the Council calls upon both countries to begin to sensitise their populations about the demarcation process and its implications, including the role of the United Nations in support of this process. But so far, there is little evidence of either side doing that. How important is such sensitisation and are there ways they can be urged to do so?

SRSG: Well, it is very important. It is important not only to UNMEE, in fact in the first instance it is important to the Boundary Commission, which is responsible for the demarcation of the border and whose contractors will be working on the ground, along the border. It is important that the people along the border are educated on the line of delimitation, educated on the work of the Boundary Commission so that when they see people planting pillars to demarcate the border they shouldn’t be shocked, they shouldn’t be surprised and they shouldn’t harm those people. So that is why it is very important to provide security for the contractors. Fortunately, that falls on the shoulders of the two parties, not on UNMEE. But UNMEE has agreed to monitor the discharge of that responsibility by the two parties and therefore it is in our interest too, to (have) the people know in advance what is going to happen to their villages along the border, to their fields, to their mountains, so that when they see people with pillars, planting them in the lands which they occupy, they shouldn’t be surprised and there shouldn’t be any conflict arising from ignorance of exactly what is going on the border. So this is the responsibility of the parties to educate their people, not the responsibility of UNMEE because we are not the government of Eritrea and Ethiopia and I don’t have to preach to the two parties because I know as sovereign states, they know what their responsibilities are.

Q. And finally Sir—and this is a bit personal—you have been quoted in the past as saying that once the peacekeeping mission is over, you’d like to retire in your native Botswana, tending cattle; is that still the case?

SRSG: Unfortunately I don’t have cattle (laughter). I will buy cattle or simply do something else because life is not only about cattle in my country, I can go and enjoy the fresh air of my beloved land and commune with the resting places of my ancestors, see the places I used to walk when I was a little boy and simply enjoy looking at the blue sky of Southern Africa and reminisce about the past, (and) write books about my activities as a peacekeeper.

Q. Thank you. Thank you very much.

SRSG: Thank you.